Trump views Paradise fire devastation, promises ‘to...

1of60President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Beale Air Force Base for a visit to areas impacted by the wildfires, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. He is followed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif.Photo: Evan Vucci, AP

2of60President Donald Trump greets California Gov. Jerry Brown as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, left, watches as he arrives on Air Force One at Beale Air Force Base for a visit to areas impacted by the wildfires, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.Photo: Evan Vucci, AP

3of60Click through the gallery to see before and after photos of Paradise, Calif. after the Camp Fire.Photo: Kurtis Alexander/Chronicle

6of60McDonald's in Paradise, Calif., as the Camp Fire devours the town, 15 miles east of Chico. The top photo shows the fast-food restaurant before it was engulfed in flames.Photo: Oakland Fire Department

7of60BEFORE: Honey Run Covered Bridge, Chico
The Honey Run Covered Bridge was the only triple-span covered bridge in the U.S. Read our story here. Photo: jgreesonarts/Getty Images/iStockphoto

8of60AFTER: Honey Run Covered Bridge, Chico

The historic Honey Run Covered Bridge connecting Chico and Paradise was destroyed in the Camp Fire.Photo: Kurtis Alexander/Chronicle

9of60BEFORE: Edgewood Estates
The senior community mobile home park as seen in May 2012, located at 5427 Edgewood Lane, Paradise, Calif.Photo: Google Maps

11of60BEFORE: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Paradise
Located at 1275 Bille Rd.Photo: Google Maps

12of60AFTER: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Paradise
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints burns during Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif. on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018.Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

13of60BEFORE:
The Paradise Gardens
The senior living community as seen in July 2012. Located at 1040 Buschmann Rd., directly across the street from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Photo: Google

18of60AFTER: Treasures from Paradise, ParadiseA destroyed antique shop is seen off of Skyway after the Camp Fire tore through the town of Paradise, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

19of60BEFORE: ARCO, Paradise
A view of an ARCO Gas station located at 7575 Skyway, Paradise, Calif.Photo: Google Maps

20of60AFER: ARCO, Paradise
Rocklin police officer Randy Law tends to a horse that was found wandering after the Camp Fire moved through the area on Nov. 9, 2018 in Paradise, Calif.Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

21of60BEFORE: Blackbear Diner, Paradise
A local place for American comfort food.

31of60BEFORE: Jack and the Box, Paradise
One of several fast-food spots in ParadisePhoto: Google Maps

32of60AFTER: Jack and the Box, Paradise
A Jack In The Box fast food restaurant burns as the Camp fire tears through Paradise, north of Sacramento, California on Nov. 08, 2018. Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

45of60BEFORE: Feather River Hospital, Paradise
The Adventist Health Feather River hospital is a 101-bed acute care hospital with an array of outpatient departments and services. The hospital still stands but sustained significant damages. Photo: Google Maps

46of60AFTER: Feather River Hospital, Paradise
The Feather River Hospital burns down during the Camp fire in Paradise, Calif. on Nov. 8, 2018. Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

47of60BEFORE: 1260 Pearson Rd., Paradise
A view of the road at 1260 Pearson Rd. in Paradise, Calif. as seen in May 2012.
Photo: Google Maps

49of60Paradise resident Fred Bowerman comforts his fiancee, Tami Wright, after they lost their home in the Camp Fire, while waiting in Chico to get a glimpse of President Trump’s motorcade.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

53of60Paradise resident Fred Bowerman waves a Donald Trump flag while his fianc�, Tami Wright (right), watches as they wait on the side of SkyWay in Chico, Calif. to get a glimpse of President Donald Trump as his motorcade drives into Paradise, Calif. Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018. Both Bowerman and Wright lost their home in the Camp Fire.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

54of60A construction worker looks at his phone while awaiting the arrival of President Trump’s motorcade in Paradise. The president surveyed damage done by the Camp Fire with Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

56of60Paradise residents Tami Wright (left) and Fred Bowerman, who lost their home in the Camp Fire, wait in Chico to get a glimpse of President Trump as his motorcade drives into Paradise.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

57of60Paradise residents Fred Bowerman, who lost his home in the Camp Fire, shows off his Donald Trump flag while waiting in Chico to get a glimpse of the president’s motorcade.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

PARADISE, Butte County — President Trump made a rare visit to smoke-choked California on Saturday, joining Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to tour what he called the “really, really bad” devastation of the Camp Fire and pledging to help with the still-unfolding disaster.

Word that Trump was coming to the deep-blue state had initially touched off anxieties among both residents and the Democratic leadership, a tension heightened by the president’s recent claims that California’s “poor” forest management was to blame for the deadly fire.

But even as Trump continued to plug his case about shoddy forestry, while downplaying the role of climate change in the wildfire season, he and the state’s top executives appeared to put aside their differences during their two hours together in hard-hit Butte County. At least 76 people have died in the Camp Fire, and that number may grow.

“Right now, we want to take care of the people who have been so badly hurt,” Trump said during a stop at the burned-out Skyway Villa Mobile Home and RV Park in Paradise. “This is very sad to see. As far as the lives are concerned, nobody knows quite yet.”

Melted cars and the charred debris of a neighborhood surrounded Trump as his black windbreaker and a “USA” baseball cap helped fend off blowing ash. Brown, Newsom, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long and Paradise Mayor Jody Jones walked alongside the president. Conversation was light in the community that remains under evacuation. But at one point Trump gave Brown a pat on the back.

“Jerry and I have been speaking, and Gavin and I have now gotten to know each other,” he said. “We’re all going to work together.”

Since Trump’s criticism of California’s forest policy last weekend, the president has focused more on the work of fire crews and the losses of residents, expressing support. But when questioned by reporters about his remarks on the state’s forests, he didn’t back down on his contention that land managers had let California become too overgrown with dangerous fuels.

“We do have to do management, maintenance,” he said. “We’ve got to take care of the floors, you know the floors of the forest, it’s very important.”

In a new twist on the debate, Trump added that the “forest nation” of Finland could serve as an example: “They spend a lot of time raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem.”

The president arrived in California on Air Force One, which touched down at Beale Air Force Base north of Sacramento amid hazy skies shortly before 10 a.m. GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Butte County Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa were also aboard. A Marine helicopter was waiting to take Trump to the fire area.

A motorcade ferried the president from the Chico Municipal Airport to Paradise on a route lined by hundreds of onlookers, about half wearing masks to protect themselves from the smoky air. There were also several protesters.

The Camp Fire, which began Nov. 8, has raged across more than 149,000 acres, almost completely wiping out Paradise, a foothill town of 27,000, as well as surrounding communities. More than 12,700 buildings have been leveled.

Recent strains between the president and Brown, with Newsom joining the fray, began just days after the fire’s ignition when the president tweeted that such blazes could be avoided if the state managed its forests better. He threatened to withhold funding for California if the situation isn’t fixed.

The tweet drew a widespread backlash, including from Brown and Newsom, complaining of its insensitivity as well as its misinformed premise.

Many of California’s recent wildfires did not burn in forests, but in grasslands and oak-filled prairie. Also, much of California’s forest land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Fire experts, as well as the governor, have underscored that hotter, drier conditions, attributed to climate change, have been the biggest factor in causing the increasingly intense burns.

Trump also visited the fire’s incident command center in Chico, where he told reporters he had not changed his position that climate change is not the problem.

“No, no,” Trump said. “I want to have a great climate, and I think we’re going to have forests that are really safe.”

Brown remained mostly quiet on the issue during a meeting of firefighters at the command center. He thanked the president for his support but said he had the situation under control.

“What needs to be done is what’s being done,” Brown said earlier in the day.

Chico resident and Paradise native Eric Danielli, like many in Butte County, had conflicted feelings about Trump’s visit.

The owner of the popular breakfast spot Café Coda, whose father lost his home, doesn’t see eye to eye with Trump politically and he was especially angered that the president used the fire to take shots at California forest policy. But he believed that the nation’s chief executive should see the extent of the calamity.

“I wish the president would have chosen his words more wisely, but this is what he should be doing,” Danielli said.

Paradise residents Fred Bowerman, 56, and his fiancee, Tami Wright, were more excited about the president’s appearance. The couple stood outside the evacuation area in Chico waving a “Make America Great Again” flag, one of the few items they had with them after losing their home and belongings in the fire.

“I’d just like to give him a fist bump,” Bowerman said, “and tell him to keep doing what he’s doing.”

Trump’s visit to California was just his second trip to the Golden State during his presidency. In March, he toured the border with Mexico in promotion of his proposed wall.

After concluding his tour of Butte County at around 1 p.m., the president flew to Southern California, where he examined damage from the Woolsey Fire and met with families of the victims in this month’s Thousand Oaks shooting.

Kurtis Alexander is a general assignment reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, frequently writing about water, wildfire, climate and the American West. His recent work has focused on the impacts of drought, the widening rural-urban divide and state and federal environmental policy.

Before joining the Chronicle, Alexander worked as a freelance writer and as a staff reporter for several media organizations, including The Fresno Bee and Bay Area News Group, writing about government, politics and the environment.